How Level Two Chimney McKinney Was Born in McKinney
We remember the exact afternoon. It was late October, the kind of day in McKinney where the light turns amber early and you can smell someone’s first fire of the season drifting from a chimney in the Craig Ranch subdivision. A homeowner called us - not to our company, because we didn’t have one here yet - but to ask a question that stuck. She’d paid for a sweep in McKinney the week before. The technician spent twenty minutes on her roof, handed her a carbon-copy receipt, and told her she needed a stainless steel liner that would cost more than her first car. No photos. No video. No explanation of what he’d actually seen.
She found us through a contact in the trade and asked if we’d look. We brought a camera. The flue was dirty, yes, but the liner was intact. What the previous company had called “dangerous deterioration” was a half-inch of creosote buildup and some spalled brick that could wait a season. She sat at her kitchen table in McKinney and cried. Not from relief - from anger. She’d nearly borrowed money for work she didn’t need.
That evening, we called the team at Level Two Chimney Co. and asked what it would take to bring their standard here. McKinney was growing fast. New construction in Prosper and Allen was booming. Older homes near downtown McKinney were getting their first real maintenance in decades. And nobody was showing homeowners what they were actually paying for. We opened this branch in 2009 to change that. The Haven Standard already existed. We brought it to Collin County.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine didn’t start in chimneys. She started in buildings - old ones, the kind where every system has been patched by three different hands over forty years. The first time she ever looked inside a flue, it was because a general contractor she’d been assisting in Dallas needed someone small enough to fit a crawl space and stubborn enough to document what they found. The contractor handed her a flashlight and a cheap digital camera and said, “Don’t come back until you know what’s actually in there.”
What she found was a liner that had been improperly sized for a converted gas insert. The homeowner had been running it for two winters, unaware that carbon monoxide was seeping through degraded mortar joints into the attic space. The smell of old soot, the grainy texture of creosote on her gloves, the way the camera light caught the hairline crack that explained everything - it was the first time she’d held evidence that could save someone’s life. She was twenty-six. She didn’t sleep well that night, but she knew what she wanted to do.
For over seventeen years since, she’s climbed roofs in every weather Texas throws at you. August heat that makes the shingles soft under your knees. January mornings in McKinney when your fingers go numb adjusting the camera head. The work doesn’t get easier. That’s not why she does it. She does it because of the homeowners who meet her at the door skeptical and shake her hand at the end asking questions. Because of the elderly couple in Fairview who finally understood why their fireplace smoked every Thanksgiving. Because of the text she still has saved from a Melissa homeowner: “You were the first person who showed me what was actually wrong instead of telling me to trust you.”
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be restoring old houses somewhere, working alone, fixing things that other people had given up on. The impulse is the same. Look closely. Document what you see. Let the evidence speak.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead, Owner & Founder of Level Two Chimney McKinney.
Corrine holds the state licensing required for chimney and fireplace work in Texas and has completed specialized training in camera-scan diagnostics, NFPA 211 inspection protocols, and solid fuel appliance installation. She doesn’t send technicians to jobs she wouldn’t do herself. When you book with us, Corrine reviews every inspection video before the report goes out. She personally handles any callback where a homeowner has questions about what we found.
Outside of work, she restores vintage motorcycles - a 1973 Honda CB350 sits half-finished in her garage in McKinney, waiting for the same attention she gives a damaged flue liner. The patience is the same. You can’t rush a bearing race or a smoke chamber parging job and expect it to hold.
Her commitment to you is simple: every chimney we touch gets the same documentation she’d want for her own home. No exceptions, no shortcuts.
Before
AfterOur Promise to McKinney Homeowners
Honest pricing, flat and in writing. Clause 1 of the Haven Standard means your estimate arrives before we start, not after we finish. We learned this from the McKinney homeowner who almost paid for a liner she didn’t need. We name our price range on every page because the number shouldn’t be a mystery.
Quality parts we can trace. When we install a liner, we use brands we know - Gelco and Olympia Chimney supply most of our stainless steel systems, and we keep the spec sheets. If a Famco or Copperfield component goes in, we document the model and batch. You’ll know exactly what is in your chimney.
Standing behind the work. Our warranty is written, dated, and specific to what we did. Not a vague “satisfaction guaranteed” but a scope-matched promise. If we parged your smoke chamber and it fails, we come back. The Haven Standard requires the paper trail that makes that possible.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every professional working under our name is required to hold the license Texas requires for chimney and fireplace work. We verify annually; we do not assume.
- Insured & bonded - Coverage is maintained at the levels required for residential work in Collin County. We carry proof on every truck.
- Years of local experience - This branch has served McKinney and surrounding communities since 2009. Corrine has personally inspected flues in every neighborhood from historic downtown to the newest Prosper subdivisions.
- Strong local reputation - We are known in the trade for the thoroughness of our documentation and the clarity of our reports. Homeowners refer us when they want someone who will explain, not sell.
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home, on your roof, and in systems that affect your air quality and fire safety. A homeowner in Allen or Plano cannot verify a technician’s skill from a uniform or a logo. They can verify a license number, an insurance certificate, and a written report with photos. We provide all three, every time.
Rooted in McKinney
This branch lives where it works. Corrine’s kids attended school in McKinney ISD. We’ve swept chimneys in the same Craig Ranch homes for fifteen years, watched the trees mature in Tucker Hill, and worked through the construction dust in Trinity Falls. We know which Fairview neighborhoods have the clay liners that crack in our freeze-thaw cycles, and which older Lucas homes still have the unlined brick flues that NFPA 211 was written to address. We don’t sponsor Little League teams or pretend to be from somewhere else. We’re the local team that agreed to work to a national standard because the standard was worth keeping.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney McKinney, serving McKinney and surrounding communities since 2009.